Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 13 October 2023. Lizzie Powell has always been a risk-taker. As the creative force behind the influential Canadian outfit Land of Talk, the Montreal-based songwriter has over the past 15 years amassed a catalog of four unimpeachable albums that…
Sensual and alluring, Matador combines scantily clad performers with pulsating English and Spanish beats, and acrobatic acts in a fast-moving show. It is a fusion of dance, circus and burlesque, a modern celebration of forbidden love, carnal desires, passion and pain in its many coloured hues. At its core is acceptance of diversity. Eleven performers cavort, clamber…
“This is a joyful song,” says Nick Cave by way of introduction to “Breathless,” a song from the 2004 double album release with his full band, The Bad Seed, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus. But then in jest he adds, “So make the f*king most of it… cause it’s downhill from…” and then laughs unable…
Hardly a conventional musical, The Tony Award-winning Songs for a New World* is thematic. It doesn’t follow a linear narrative. Dating from 1995, with music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, it is about life changing moments and navigating uncertainty. The cast represents passengers on a crowded ship en route to a new land. Traditionally, the show is…
Elvis lives. I dare say many the world over would hope that isn’t just a throwaway line, rather a reality. The truth is the legend of Elvis does live on. Not for naught is he still referred to as The King. Elvis: A Musical Revolution explores the life and times of one of the world’s truly great…
Subterfuge and skullduggery abound, with the Russians and the Allies at loggerheads during the Cold War in Chess: The Musical. The maneuvering is intense, the stakes are high at the World Chess Championships. With music by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, and book and lyrics from Tim Rice, CLOC has put on a tremendous production. The…
Our selection of the best new music across a range of genres from the week ending 6 October 2023. As Tele Novella, Chronis (who performs in the beloved and rekindled indie pop band Voxtrot) and Ribbons (who previously performed in the long-running “Victorian punk” project Agent Ribbons) have spent their past two albums creating “Medieval…
Featuring 22 tracks from ABBA, Mamma Mia! The Musical is bright, breezy, energetic and heaps of good-natured fun. Whenever it returns, it always goes down a treat and I never tire of seeing it. The show premiered in Oz on the 9th June 2001 and played for four years to more than 2.2 million people in eight…
Just why Deborah Conway and her husband Willy Zygier are cherished as Australian music royalty is evident when you see Songs from the Book of Life. It is an 80-minute narrative concert featuring a cavalcade of life experiences, as outlined by Conway, along with eight songs. She goes back to her childhood when her parents used…
Indie sensation Mitski has once again delivered a record that resonates on multiple levels, this time with her seventh studio album, The Land Is Inhospitable And So Are We. Known for her poignant lyricism and genre-defying soundscapes, Mitski continues to push the boundaries of her artistry in this latest offering as this album marks the…
